By: Keather Cofield
The city of Charlotte, also affectionately known as the “Queen City,” has seen a lot of growth in its 250-year history. A large part of that growth in recent years is due to the many Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) women who have contributed their time and effort into making this community fit for a queen.
One of these many women is JLC sustainer Sharon King, who is also the CEO and Founder of Taylor’s Tale, a small grassroots foundation dedicated to the advocacy and research of rare diseases. Taylor’s Tale is one of the world’s leading voices in the fight against rare disease, working to build a better future for one in ten Americans – and 350 million people worldwide – who suffer from one of more than 7,000 rare diseases.
Sharon joined the JLC in 1986 after she and her husband relocated to Charlotte. She was looking for an opportunity to get more involved in the community, and her mother-in-law spoke highly of the great training she had received as a member of the League. During her time as an “active” member of the JLC, Sharon participated in trainings and served in various leadership roles, including President for the 1997-1998 League year.
She attributes much of her professional success and the creation of Taylor’s Tale to two things she received during her time with the JLC — trainings and friendships. Many of the trainings she attended taught her lifelong skills including advocacy, goal-setting, planning, and networking, all of which she utilizes in her personal and professional life today. Sharon described the JLC trainings as a way to turn a good leader into a great leader. In 2006, when her then seven-year-old daughter Taylor was diagnosed with Batten Disease, a fatal brain disease with no known cure, it was Sharon’s best friend from the League that helped her cope with the news. It was this friendship and others she had made in the League that helped Taylor’s Tale get its start.
Sharon is a tireless advocate for others. She is an appointed member of the North Carolina Council on Rare Disease at the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, serving as an advisor on research, diagnosis, treatment, and education relating to rare diseases. She also founded the North Carolina Rare Disease Coalition as a complement to the North Carolina Advisory Council on Rare Disease. With other members of the Coalition, she is helping to ensure that rare disease is a public health priority.
For a woman who lives by the quote, “a pessimist complains about the wind, an optimist expects it to change, but a realist adjusts the sails,” she truly exemplifies the JLC ideals and goals of developing women and bettering the community in which we live. Sharon is not only changing our city for the better, but also the world with each state and federal legislation she fights for to fund the research needed to find the cures of rare diseases.
